Changing Tune
by UnoriginalToast
Summary: Everything changes. After curing the human race, Holiday tries to give Rex and her odd little family a normal life. However, for Rex, normalcy is boring and he doesn't want to change who he is. And, for a kid as unique as he is, danger is never far away.
1. Chapter 1

The alarms were ringing so loudly that Rex figured he'd have the blaring sound stuck in his head for the rest of his life. As he raced down the hallway of the large ship, his heart started pounding in excitement and blood rushed to his face making him feel warm all over. He loved this feeling. It had been a while since he'd felt so alive! The adrenaline pumping through his veins made him want to shout or punch something. Or punch something while shouting. Either way, if he could bottle up this feeling and keep it forever, he'd do it as quickly as his heart was beating.

This feeling was almost foreign to him now, replicated only slightly by working out at the Providence gym. As a high school sophomore now living a relatively normal life, and with no monsters to cure on a daily basis, his day-to-day was pretty, well… Normal. How boring.

"When are we landing, Six?" Rex shouted over the persistent alarms as he slid into the hatch and ducked down next to his mentor, guardian, and sick ninja guy.

Six didn't acknowledge him in any obvious way, instead pressing the device on his ear and pausing. Rex who, after six years of knowing this man, had finally learned to exert a little patience in waiting for a reply, but he still stared wide-eyed at the man, as if his urgent brown eyes would drag an answer out any faster.

"We're dropping in 5… 4…" Six began. Rex only had time to roll his eyes and think 'Gee, thanks for the warning' before the hatch burst open and the two were suddenly weightless against only the dark night sky, with the ground fast approaching.

"This." Rex thought as his lower body morphed into a hovercraft and Six fired up his jetpack. "This is how I want to live."

* * *

"This is absolutely ridiculous! Six, are you serious?"

Holiday was fuming. Her face was red with anger and her eyes seemed permanently narrowed in a glare meant only for the tall, green suited man in front of her. Her voice came out in a whisper, soft and raspy, but it had all the intended fury of a loud scream. Although his eyes couldn't be seen through his glasses and his lips remained in a thin, expressionless line, Six was scared. With how angry Holiday looked, he'd be stupid not to be scared.

The minute Holiday laid eyes on Rex as the two came through the automatic doors of the Providence hospital bay, she could have ripped his lungs out. Rex had shot her a weak smile as he was helped along by Six. He was limping, an arm slung around his mentor and the other grasping his lower left side.

Holiday already wasn't thrilled to be called in by Providence at three in the morning. Well, she wasn't the one to be called in. Rather, Rex and Six were asked to come help with yet another robot outbreak in downtown St. Louis and, God-forbid something happen, she wasn't going to be left back at home fearing for Rex and Six. She wasn't at all happy about it, but she felt she was the only one who could adequately take care of the two, especially if Rex's nanites began to act up.

After an extremely brief check up on Six to make sure he was alright, Holiday got to work wrapping up Rex's ankle, putting a bandage over his side, and settling down his restless cells who had been pushed to their limits for the first time in a while. Once everything that could be done for him was finished at the hospital bay, the three were taken back to their home in suburbia.

Holiday had just tucked a sleeping Rex into bed as the sun began to rise through the beige curtains on his window, illuminating his typically teenage boy room. Once she was sure Rex was sleeping, she had turned to Six and unleashed everything she felt about this mission.

"If you want to keep working for them, fine." She said, her voice slowly rising as she turned on her heels and closed the door to Rex's room. "But neither myself nor Rex work for Providence anymore. Rex isn't your weapon you can just take for a spin whenever you want. He's a kid. A kid who can't go to school today, and probably for the rest of the week because he pushed himself to the absolute edge for a company that only cared about how much destruction he could do!"

By now Holiday had made her way to the kitchen where she angrily grabbed a mug and started blindly mashing buttons on the Keurig machine, hoping it would spit out at least some coffee. Six had followed her silently, not showing any emotion, and certainly not interrupting her.

After she had gotten a cup of coffee—which the machine had only half filled, she thumped her mug on the kitchen island and returned her glare to Six. "I'm serious, Six. This. Is. It. No more joyrides, no more late night saving the world. He needs to focus on school and try to have a normal life." Towards the end of her rant, her eyes seemed to soften, as though she was pleading with Six. In a way, she was.

Six paused for a moment, trying to be sure Holiday had said everything she needed to. He knew that things had changed. While Six continued to work at Providence, all Holiday wanted was for Rex to have some security. They couldn't undo the fact that his parents were gone and his brother was flighty at best. What they could do was be the best guardians they could possibly be. And, thinking about it, perhaps being a good guardian doesn't entail letting your sixteen-year-old freebase off a military plane 30,000 feet in the air.

On the other hand, though, the world still needed Rex. Sure, the EVO issue had taken care of itself, but Rex was still a special kid who could help Providence in ways others couldn't. He could shut down robots and talk to machines. With technology advancing so quickly, it was often falling into the wrong hands. Not always bad, evil hands, but hands that had no idea what they were doing. With Rex jobs were simple. But, Holiday was right. Even years later, Six had a tendency to view Rex as a sort of weapon—a tool that could be used when needed. After years of being used at Providence, Rex deserved to have a normal teenage life. He deserved to go to school and prom, get a job, and learn to drive a vehicle that wasn't made out of the lower half of his own body. Did he need a license for that anyway?

"Rebecca," Six started slowly as Holiday cocked an eyebrow, as though daring him to rebuke her. "I get it. Rex does deserve a normal life. But he's not a normal kid. You're right, we all look at him as though he is a tool that can be used and that's wrong. But he does possess tools that the world needs." Holiday frowned at that, but kept her lips pursed in silence. Six was done speaking, as the usually stoic and quiet man felt he had made all the argument he needed to get his point across. After holding her gaze for another moment, Holiday let her shoulders relax forward and she sighed.

"I know he's not a normal kid." She said, almost in a mumble. It was as though all the anger had come flooding out of her. "But really, Six, I don't want him being called into Providence all the time. He doesn't work there. I know that bad things happen in the world, and they may need him someday. But every single time something happens? They can handle it themselves."

Six sighed. He knew Holiday was right, though he didn't want to admit it. For a moment he searched the depths of his mind to figure out why, exactly, he was so upset at the idea of not having Rex come along on every mission. After all, the kid was annoying, loud, and often got himself into more trouble than the whole thing was even worth. Today was a classic case and point.

However, Six realized after a moment of soul searching, that this was exactly what he would miss. When he met Rex years ago, he had initially wanted to find his family and be done. Then, he wanted to use him as a tool to cure the human race. But now that he had watched Rex grow up over the past few years—and honestly, now that he had helped raise him—he almost saw these missions as a sort of bonding experience. As messed up as that sounds, Six felt most connected to Rex when they were escaping death by mere seconds and falling from planes in the sky. Now he'd have to find another way to bond with the obnoxious teenager. He'd have to teach him how to drive or play ball. Or worse, talk about girls.

But Holiday was as fierce as a mother lion. If there was no reason for Rex to be in danger, she certainly wasn't going to allow him to walk into the fire. And, Six figured, she was completely right. "Okay." Six finally said after a moment. "I will only take him if Providence really can't handle things on their own."

Holiday wasn't completely pleased with the idea of Providence using him at all, but did understand that Rex would be needed in some capacity someday. She wanted to protect him. She wanted to protect Six, but knew that man would never and could never be kept away from the danger Providence promised. He enjoyed it too much. But, she held firm that even if Rex would never be considered normal, he deserved a routine that mirrored that of a regular kid. "Alright," she said after a pause of her own.

Holiday took another sip of her coffee and sat down on the barstool next to the island. She sat down heavily and sighed. She was exhausted, both from arguing and from being woken up so early in the morning. Six thought for a moment about leaving her, but he pulled up the other stool and sat down.

"You're doing a great job." He said. Holiday glanced at him, a little surprised by the warm words he had spoken.

"Thank you." She replied and let out another heavy sigh. "I just want to have some sense of normalcy. Honestly, Six, I want to feel like a family."

"We are." He affirmed, but said nothing more.

Holiday smiled at that and placed a hand on his knee. "Good. I know there's been a lot of changes, but I think things are finally starting to come together."

But for Rex who had come downstairs to grab a glass of water, but stayed hidden on the staircase to listen to the argument, this change was about to break down everything that made him Generator Rex.

* * *

 _A sort of sequel to my other fic,_ Changes _from a few years ago. Not sure how many chapters there will be, of if this will end up a oneshot deal. I'm trying to procrastinate studying for finals. Feedback is welcome and appreciated!_

 _Oh, also I'm a huge fan of Holix, but I will try to keep romance subtle!_


	2. Chapter 2

Sunlight peeked into the darkened room, casting only the slightest glow on the hard wood floor. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set. Rex's room was the prime target for the light, and his only defense was the thick curtains that hung on his window. The light would have annoyed anyone, but being a teenage boy, Rex liked his room dark, so the curtain was always closed. Well, unless Holiday was cleaning the house and opened the curtains herself, but they were always quickly closed by the boy later.

Now the boy was sitting against the wall on his bed, tossing his bouncy ball against the opposite wall. He was lost in thought, the soft _thunk thunk_ of the ball bouncing against the floor and the wall and the _click_ of the ball against his hand for a brief second before it was thrown out again lulled him into his mind.

It had been a week since his last mission. The bandage around his ankle had been removed days ago and only a small square Band-Aid remained over a wound on his side. He had missed two days of school, but quickly returned. Holiday had wanted him to rest another day, though she didn't want him to miss too much of class, and while Rex would have usually loved an extended break from school, he also just wanted to get out of the house.

' _Things are finally starting to come together.'_ The words repeated over and over like a taunt in Rex's head. He was never good with emotions. Beating bad guys up? Yeah, he could do that. Taking his frustration out on a dummy in the Providence Gym? Easy peasy! But these were feelings he couldn't just beat out of himself.

Everything was changing. Some of these changes were good—he had a bigger room, more time to hang out with Bobo and Noah, and he lived close to most of his friends. Six and Holiday seemed to be doing really great too. Holiday loved her job at the hospital lab and she was sure she was getting close to breakthrough in her cancer research. The two adults also had more time to spend together now that they were roommates. Six seemed pleased with the reduced hours and appeared happy to leave behind the extra stress that comes with living where you work.

Rex was ripped away from his thoughts as Bobo, his trusty monkey sidekick came strolling lazily into the room. The primate saw his friend still sitting against the wall where he had left him hours ago to go for a walk. He signed and hopped up next to Rex.

"Alright kid, cut the crap and spill." Bobo said gruffly. Although it certainly didn't sound like it, he cared.

Rex paused for a moment, but finally sighed heavily and caught the ball he had tossed a moment before, and set it down next to him.

"Everything is changing."

Bobo let out a scoff. "Wow, what an amazing observation, Doctor. Please, tell me more," he said in a sarcastic tone. Being compassionate wasn't his strong point, so when Rex shot him a stern glare, the boy didn't really expect him to change his behavior.

"Thanks," Rex said dryly, but he also knew that somewhere, deep down, Bobo had a point. If Rex was going to open up about his feelings, he couldn't be so cryptic.

"It's just…" Rex struggled to find the words. "I don't think I can handle all of these new expectations of me."

Bobo raised an eyebrow. "So, you can fight EVOs and bad guys, but you can't do a little homework and clean the bathroom?"

Rex shook his head. "No, it's not like that. It's just… Holiday wants me to have a normal life. But what I don't think she gets is that, for as long as I can remember, I've never been normal! I can only remember the past six years, and for those six years I've been crime fighting, bad guy stopping, taco eating Rex!" He picked up his bouncy ball and studied it intensely, as though it would give him all the answers he needed. "Now Holiday wants me to be studious Rex. Go to school Rex. Don't flush my underwear down the toilet Rex." He cracked a small smile at that last one.

"To be fair," Bobo said with a hearty laugh. "I think she's always wanted you to be 'don't flush my underwear down the toilet Rex.'"

Rex returned the laugh, albeit a little weaker than normal. "Yeah. But yeah. I guess that's kinda it." He shrugged his shoulders and tossed his ball against the wall again, catching it, and then setting it down once more. "You know, I bet my parents sent me to school." He said, gazing over to his window.

"Are you sure about that?" his friend teased.

"Yeah, I'm sure." The boy cracked a small, wistful smile. "I bet they helped me with homework and cooked for me. Just like Holiday. Well…" Rex thought before sticking his tongue out a little. "They might have been a little better at the cooking. But, I don't want to disappoint her. I know she wants me to be safe. But I'm not that kind of guy. Maybe I would have been if everything hadn't happened, but now." Rex shrugged and finally looked over at Bobo. "Now I'm me. I can't change that."

* * *

Later that evening, Rex, Holiday, and Bobo sat around the table having dinner. No one mentioned where Six was, but they all knew. He had been asked to come help Providence with another issue, but didn't feel the need was great enough to take Rex. Holiday didn't want to tell Rex that Six had gone without him as she worried he would be hurt. She also had no idea that Rex had heard the conversation from a few nights prior.

Rex helped clean up and Holiday asked him about his school project due in the next week. Rex promised he would get it done before the end of the night and retreated to his room.

"You're not seriously going to do that project, are you?" Bobo asked as he waltzed into Rex's room. Rex smiled slightly and shook his head. Of course not. The project was due next week. So, obviously, that meant he would _do_ it next week!

"Then let's go have a little fun." A wicked smile spread across Bobo's lips and he grinned at the boy. Rex could tell the monkey had something interesting planned, but he knew better than to flat out ask. All Bobo would tell him was "it's a surprise" and "come with me and you'll fine out." So, Rex pushed back his curtains and opened the window. He placed his hands on the sill and dangled out the window for a moment, allowing his lower legs to morph into a hovercraft. Once he was steady in the air, Bobo hopped onto his shoulders and the two went flying off into the darkening evening sky.

* * *

"What do you think Six went to go investigate?" Rex mused to his friend as they soared through the night. Although the adrenaline wasn't pumping the way it had the week before, Rex enjoyed the feeling of the wind softly whipping his face and the sight of cities going by in a blur. This, he felt, was freedom.

Bobo shrugged. "Probably something stupid." He answered vaguely. He was right, though. Rex had noticed that after the whole EVO scare was finished, the other missions just didn't seem… dangerous. Sure, last week that robot got him good, but he blamed being severely out of practice. After rounding up a few baddies that other law enforcement couldn't get, he lost his touch for fighting and let his guard down. He didn't want that to happen again.

"I hope he's alright." Rex let slip out. He cared for the man as though he were a father. And, really, Six was the only father he could remember. Together with Holiday, they formed a family Rex never thought he'd have. Sure, their so-called parenting styles could be erratic, but Rex was grateful for them anyway. Besides, when they joined Providence, he was sure they weren't anticipating becoming glorified babysitters. They made do, and they did their best.

"Hey, look down there!" Bobo pointed down below. Rex hadn't noticed before, as he was too busy looking ahead towards the sky, but they had left the cities and towns far behind and they were now in the middle of a desert. Rex saw a thin trail of smoke coming from something that couldn't be seen clearly from the height they were at. But, what Rex did notice was the outline of a jump ship that looked all too similar to one that Providence owned.

"We should check it out!" Bobo said excitedly, always looking for adventure. Rex hesitated. If Six found him there, he was going to be in gigantic trouble! But, it did look interesting. Something was going on and Rex's boyish curiosity got the better of him.

Without another word, Rex headed down towards the sight. As Rex neared, his excited curious smile turned into a deep frown. There were Providence ships all over the place, but no one to be found. Then, he started making out the small dots on the ground.

Soldiers.

Providence soldiers to be exact. Rex couldn't tell from that height whether they were unconscious or dead. As he came closer, he began to dissolve the lower half of his legs back into his regular, human legs. He and Bobo plopped to the ground and the two began to look around. Rex instinctively began searching the sea of grey for any sign of green. He didn't know if he was relieved or even more concerned when he didn't see what he was looking for.

Around them was long stretches of desert, but directly in front was a large rock formation. Rex couldn't tell if the rock itself was man-made, but there was a large grey door carved into the side of the rock. It looked similar to a tin or aluminum garage door, but much larger, at least 30 feet tall.

"What happened here? And what's that?" Rex asked pointing to the rock. He didn't actually expect Bobo to have any idea what was going on, but his question expressed just how appalled he was at the destruction saw before him.

Bobo, as expected, shrugged his shoulders. "Well?" the money said. "Are we gonna go in? Or are we gonna stand here like a bunch of babies and wait for someone else to kick some butt?" He glanced up at Rex with a mischievous smile. While Rex wanted some adventure, but also honestly wanted to help people, Bobo's wants were a little more self-fulfilling. Sure, he didn't want anyone to die, but he was mostly motivated by the sense of adventure.

Rex actually paused for a minute. Something had taken out all of these Providence soldiers. Although they sometimes seemed like weak grunts, these guys were trained as hard, if not harder than secret agents or FBI recruits. For once the usually confident boy wasn't sure if he could handle such a dangerous enemy. He had been out of practice for a while, and taking on large enemies always took lots and lots of training.

But he couldn't find Six, and he was sure his mentor was here somewhere. If the threat was this big and had taken out this many soldiers, there was no way Providence wouldn't send their best out there. He needed to find him. That was what how he found himself nodding as he and Bobo broke into a run and ran towards the rock-lair.

* * *

The cavern was dimly lit by old lights that buzzed loudly and flickered every other second. Rex and Bobo made their way down the makeshift hallway as they had been for the last few minutes. Whoever had built this had one certain purpose in mind—or couldn't carve into the rock—as there were no offshoot hallways. Just one, long, hall that seemed to go on forever.

Suddenly, Rex noticed a dot of light that didn't appear to come from one of the lamps on the wall. As the two walked down the hall, it seemed to be getting bigger.

"Hey, I think that's the end of the tunnel." Rex whispered to Bobo as quietly as he could because if he spoke any louder, it would echo throughout the cavern.

They slowed their pace and stared at the light so that their eyes would adjust quicker from the dim cavern to the sharp brightness of whatever was at the end of this tunnel. It looked like some sort of lab, completely covered in white which made the adjustment from dark to light even more difficult to get used to.

Rex stood flat against the cavern wall and peered out into the room. As noted, it was decked out in white and grey, from the walls to the ceilings to even most of the equipment. Rex couldn't make out anything that made the lab unique. All of the machines seemed to have different uses and none made Rex absolutely sure of what kind of lab he was about to walk into.

Bobo on the opposite wall gave a thumbs up, indicating that no one seemed to be there. Rex mirrored the gesture, as he had not seen anyone from his vantage point. The two crept out into the room. Bobo went to look at the machines while Rex walked around. The room was circular in shape, so Rex took it slow to ensure there he was not snuck up upon.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of green on the ground. Without thinking, he ran over to where Six was lying. His sunglasses had managed to stay perfectly on his face, but Rex was sure he was unconscious. He dropped to the ground and felt for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when he found one. He glanced around for Bobo, but he wasn't in eyesight.

"Six?" Rex whispered, shaking the man. "Hey, brah wake up!" To his delight, the man groaned and slowly sat up. Rex put a hand on his back to help and tried to peer into his eyes as best he could with the glasses covering them. "Six, what happened here? What is this place? What's going on?"

Rex should have known better than to ask a ton of questions since he wasn't going to get answers, but he couldn't help himself. His heart was beating in his chest so quickly, and he didn't even stop to relish in the feeling of adrenaline pulsing through him.

"What are you doing here?" Six asked and Rex could tell his eyes were narrowing behind his glasses. The man stood up shakily and Rex followed, trying to find some sort of puncture wound or blood, but there was none. What had knocked Six out in the first place was still a mystery.

"Bobo and I went on a ride and we saw all these soldiers outside and everyone was hurt." Rex explained. Even though this was obviously a serious situation, Rex wanted to paint himself in the best light possible, so he left out the whole sneaking out part. For most kids, finding themselves in the throws of danger would probably cancel out any wrong doing on their part for their parents. For Rex, it was 2 weeks grounded.

The man silently cocked an eyebrow but figured the rest of the story would come out later. For now, they had to go. "We need to get out of here."

"What is this place?" Rex asked.

"I don't have time to explain it now," Six sighed and grabbed Rex by the arm. "Let's go. Where's the chimp?"

"Right here!" Bobo appeared from behind one of the machines. "Hey, you know all these things are different kinds of machines? Like medical equipment to computer software. Nothing seems to go together."

Six nodded as though he already knew all of this. He led the other two towards the cavern again and glanced around. He pulled both Rex and Bobo against the wall and glared at both of them. "You shouldn't be here." He said. "It's dangerous. We have a suspect who is trying to create machines that can do serious damage."

"Like the giant robot thing?" Rex said, referencing the past few giant robot outbreaks.

"No." Six said simply. "These machines can do damage from your phones or computers." He realized he was making almost no sense. "Look, we need to get out of here. I can explain on the way back home."

Rex groaned. Holiday was going to kill them. Six noticed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll talk to her." He owed him that much. If Rex hadn't come by when he did, well… Who knows who would have found him instead.

"What happened to you anyway?" Rex asked as the three made their way back through the cavern.

"A machine started fighting me." Six explained. "I got stuck with something. I don't know what." Rex nodded.

"You should probably have Dr. Holiday check you out." Rex said. "I wish we knew who did this. Machines that take over the world. That's kinda like EVOs, right? Just without turning the humans into monsters part. But hey! I can talk to machines! I can make them stop, so I can help!"

Six didn't respond. He knew Holiday would kill him if he dragged Rex into this. But, the kid had a point. They didn't know what they were facing—no one had gotten in that far. All they knew was that there had been reports of someone creating machines that could harm people and Providence went in. With all these giant robot outbreaks, they had to take each report seriously. But, if Rex could talk to machines, that would make everything a lot easier. They could end this before it began.

But Six didn't have a chance to voice his concerns before his vision went dark and he crashed to the ground.

* * *

 _I had more time to procrastinate and this came out. I'm not sure where the story is going exactly, but I'll figure it out and I have a couple ideas. I hope it's not too boring-I tend to second guess myself on creating my own plot points. I assure you, though, I'll finish it._

 _Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate the interest. It's been a while since I've written a multi-chapter fanfiction (5 years) so this should be interesting._

 _Thanks again and please leave feedback if you have the chance!_


	3. Chapter 3

Rex, who had been a little in front of Six when he fell jumped at the thud. He and Bobo turned around and his mind immediately went into panic.

"Six?" he called, foolishly hoping for an answer. Of course there was none. Rex knelt down and felt for a pulse, an instinct he had picked up from his time at Providence. There was one—a strong one at that—which eased Rex's worry only slightly.

Rex's legs morphed into what looked like a long, flying motorcycle without wheels. He carefully drove up next to Six and, with Bobo's help, laid his mentor over the seat in front of him. Bobo hopped on behind and Rex flinched under the weight. The machine could help him hold more, but it was still a part of his body.

Rex zoomed out of the tunnel and out into the open night air. It had cooled down considerably since Rex and Bobo had entered the cave, but Rex still had no idea how long they had been gone since the desert was known to cool down quickly at night. He thought briefly about going back to the Providence ship, but the area was still deserted, so he decided he would go back home to Holiday. Besides, even though she was probably going to kill him for sneaking out, she was also the best person to take care of Six.

"How's greenie?" Bobo asked gruffly and Rex glanced down at the man. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, but his breaths seemed short and labored. Rex frowned at that and took one hand off of a handle and placed it on the man's forehead.

"He's got a fever." Rex responded grimly. He meant for his voice to have more emotion, but he could only shout back to Bobo over the high wind as the threesome flew through the night air. Bobo nodded, but didn't ask any questions.

Whatever Six had been stuck with had to have caused this, Rex thought. The man didn't just get worn out, and he showed no signs of being sick over the past few days. Thinking back to the room, there was a lot of medical equipment. Could he have been stuck with something intended to subdue him? Surely there was no medical personnel in there able to give him a non-lethal dose. Not that any bad guy would really care about proper medical treatment.

Finally, Rex and Bobo arrived with Six back to their little suburban house. Rex pulled up to the door and stayed there, hovering above the porch as he banged wildly on the door. "Holiday!" He shouted, knowing that he and Bobo couldn't carry Six inside by himself.

Holiday had been woken up by the rush of wind and the whir of what she recognized to be Rex's engine. She ran downstairs in her bathrobe and quickly unlocked the door before flinging it open to the sight of Rex, Bobo, and Six hovering outside her door. She looked to Rex and Bobo with a stern glare, knowing the two of them had snuck out. But, she questioned for a brief moment, if the two had snuck out, why didn't they sneak back in?

Then her eyes looked at Six who was still unconscious and draped over seat. Her eyes softened into a look of extreme concern and without a word, she helped Rex and Bobo carry him in and onto the couch.

Holiday touched Six's forehead with the back of her palm and frowned before running upstairs to her room. When she returned, she had a bag of medical equipment and she had changed from her bathrobe into a tshirt and sweatpants. Rex and Bobo stood back, letting the doctor do the work.

"Where were you?" Holiday asked as she stood up and turned to face Rex, her hands on her hips. Rex swallowed hard and paused for a minute. On one hand, he really didn't want to get in trouble. On the other, this whole thing looked serious.

"Bobo and I snuck out…" Rex began, looking everywhere but at the unconscious Six and the angry looking Holiday. He explained everything—from the joyride through the desert to finding the rock lair and all the machines, to what Six had told them before he passed out.

"You said Six was stuck with something?" Holiday asked with concern. As Rex had told the story, she took a seat in one of the arm chairs in the living room and listened intently. She was aggravated that Rex had snuck out, and extremely upset that he had gone into such danger, but now she was even more concerned about what could be brewing in the lair and what had attacked Six.

Rex nodded, having sat down on the floor across from her. "Yeah. But that's all he said. You know Six. He kind of just brushed it off." Holiday nodded. Oh yes, she knew Six. She turned and looked over at the man with her brows furrowed, trying to figure out what it was that had caused him to collapse so suddenly. Unless, it wasn't sudden.

"Rex, you said there was a lot of different kinds of machines in there, right?" Holiday asked and was answered with a nod. "Were there any medical machines?" Again, another nod. Holiday paused for a moment before standing up digging through her bag, and checking on Six once more.

"What is it?" Rex asked, knowing she had an idea, but also knowing that she was too preoccupied with connecting the dots to give him a reply.

After a moment she turned back around. "I can't be sure unless I get him to a proper hospital bay," she said. "But I'm theorizing that he was stuck with an overdose of sedatives by one of the machines. Maybe one used in hospitals to regulate how much sedative is given to a patient, or it could even be something else that had a supply nearby."

Rex nodded. "That would explain why he was out when we got to him and passed out so suddenly," he reasoned. "I mean, Six is good at hiding when he's tired or hurt. He probably was felling tired and woozy the whole time, but didn't show it."

Holiday nodded in agreement and sighed. Six was extremely good at hiding when he was hurt—so much that it was really getting dangerous. "Well, he should be alright," she said. "The large amount of sedatives in his bloodstream caused a slight fever, but it's coming down. He'll just have to sleep it off. Now, as for you sneaking out…" Holiday placed her hands on her hips and looked sternly at the boy.

Rex gulped and tried to flash her a winning smile, as though that would cause her to take pity on him. "Come on, Doc. I got him back here. If I hadn't shown up, he'd still be stuck in that lair place!"

Without realizing it, Holiday softened her gaze softly. He did have a point. If Rex and Bobo hadn't snuck out, they wouldn't have found Six and something really bad could have happened to him. But, she was still angry that Rex had done something so recless and stupid! He could have been hurt, or worse! They had no idea what was out there, and Providence had only just begun investigating whoever it was causing robot attacks and sentient machines.

"We need to contact Providence." Holiday said shortly after a minute. She figured that now wasn't the time to get angry or punish Rex. After all, she could do that later. For now, she needed access to proper medical equipment to ensure that whatever happened to Six wasn't going to get worse.

Rex breathed a sigh of relief. He sure got lucky on that one!

* * *

A few hours later, Rex found himself standing in the familiar medical lab of the Providence base he had pretty much grown up in. He breathed in the smell of medicine and shots, remembering the times the lab was transformed into a birthday party or a space where he and Holiday could just talk things out. He could tell the doctor was also a little pleased at being back to her old stomping grounds. Although she adored her new job at the hospital, Providence was where she got her start, and she was thankful to be welcome back any time.

"We're going to need all hands on deck for this one." White Knight had said cryptically when Rex and Holiday arrived with Six. Holiday hesitated to offer complete support, but promised she'd do what she could to at least ensure that Six was alright.

"Do you know what's going on?" Rex asked the computer screen that displayed the image of a pale, white haired man. When picking a badass boss name, White Knight sure went for the most literal one he could think of.

"We're not entirely sure." The man responded. Although Rex had done Providence a great service and was now a little older, he still hesitated to tell him all of what they knew. But, if he wanted the super powered kid on their side, he would have to give him all the information he would need to fight.

"We think it's some sort of organization that started out as an innocent little robotics club," Knight explained. "You know, just a few machines donated to be tinkered with and some kids with too much time on their hands. Then a bad apple came in and convinced them all that they should be trying to create artificial intelligence to beat down the bullies that had mocked them before."

Rex raised an eyebrow at that. How cliché did that sound? White Knight noticed and scowled a little at the boy. His men would remain stone faced and accept everything he said as gospel—at least to his face. But Rex let his emotions show freely and was quick to frown or furrow his brows when something sounded stupid.

"I know it sounds like a movie, but that's what intelligence has gathered so far." Knight said irritably. "We don't know if the all of the originals are still around or if they left when the bad apple took over. All we know for sure is that there is one person at the head of this operation and a few people following them. We don't know what their end game is or what they want out of all of this. All we know is that technology across the world is starting to go haywire. No one has been directly hurt thanks to quick responses, but we've had quite a few near misses."

"How do we know when or where the next issue is going to pop up?" Rex asked.

"That's the problem," the older man explained, his tone softening at what he felt was a smart question from the boy. "We don't. This isn't like an EVO outbreak where we can easily see the giant monsters attacking everyone. These attacks are subtle and involve extremely intricate technological systems. The best bet we have right now is to shut them down or turn them off."

"That's where I come in."

"That's where you come in."

Rex nodded. "Got it. Well just send me wherever you need me! I'll get to the bottom of this! I'll be like a super spy or something."

Knight rolled his eyes as Holiday frowned deeply. She had been quiet throughout this entire conversation, trying to get as informed as possible. But now Knight wanted to use Rex? She was not a fan of this plan.

"Rex has school. And homework. And this is just too dangerous. We don't even know who these people are and you want to send him out blindly?" Holiday said flatly, folding her arms in front of her. Rex looked over at her with his eyes wide and his mouth open. How could she not let him fight this?

"Doc, I'm the only one who can talk to machines and make them knock it off!" Rex complained as his doctor and guardian shook her head.

"No. We got away from Providence to get away from the fighting and the bad guys," She said firmly. "I'm not going to let Providence use you like a tool again!"

"But how am I being used if I want to help?" Rex shot back.

"You want to help an organization that only saw you as a weapon for the past six years and only kept you on because you were useful to their agenda?" Holiday retorted. Rex stood up from the chair he had been sitting at and threw his hands in the air, exasperated.

"Doc, I know you want me to live this nice sweet normal life or whatever," He fumed. "But I just can't! All I've ever known is Providence and crime fighting and getting to help people! Yeah, I wanna do well in school and do homework and stuff like that, but I also want to fight and help people! I can't be kept cooped up all the time! I'm not cut out for normal life! I mean, look at me. I grow machines out of my body! How is that normal? What, am I supposed to use that in the school talent show? I don't think so! Doc, you can't protect me forever. And I know you want to make good changes and I appreciate that, but I can't change who I am!"

Rex panted a little at the end of this outburst. His face was red and he was suddenly overwhelmed with exhausted that was also due in part to having stayed up all night. Holiday stared at him, surprised that he had spoken to her like that. Sure, they never had the traditional mother-son relationship, but he certainly never had spoken to her that angrily before. This was something extremely important to him and she knew it.

But before she had the chance to respond, Rex had grown impatient with the short pause and stomped out of the room.

* * *

 _Apologies for the delay in updates, my fiance graduated this week and we're on vacation! I had this chapter all set to go, but no wifi or time to look over this chapter. I also wanted to be further along in the next chapter before I posted, but oh well. With the summer classes I'm taking, I'm sure I'll be writing more soon! So, enjoy and thanks for the support!_


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